Brew Day #4

Preparation 

Water - Prepared over previous two days

Basically filtered then boiled two batches of water, allowed to cool then drained from boiler all except the dregs. Full details of process here.

Ingredients - Checked in the days prior to brew

These were purchased from Brew UK.

Hops were vacuum packed 100g pellets. 

Malt was pre-milled in 1KG packages.

Gypsum and Epsom Salts as powders in plastic containers.

Yeast dry vacuum packed.

Hops and Yeast stored in fridge at 5C - good for yeast, unknown for hops.

Malt stored in garage at approx 16C - no idea of this is a good storage temp.

Recipe

Hop Back Summer Lightening Clone as published in the Graham Wheeler Book - Camra's Brew Your Own British Real Ale.

I have been encouraged by Steve's Beer and Bike blog where he details his brew day with this recipe. If your attempting this recipe, I encourage you to have a read. 

Recipe	Measure
Pale Malt (EBC 4 or less)	5.1Kg
Challenger Hops (start of Boil)	38g
Goldings Hops (Last 10 Min of Boil)	13g
Goldings Hops (End of Boil)	8g
Goldings Hops Dry Hop - Primary	35g
Yeast	Danster - Nottingham Ale Yeast
Mash Liquor	32 litres
Mash Temperature	68C
Mash Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Sparge Temperature	no sparge
Mash Efficiency (estimated)	65%
Boil Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Batch Volume	19 litres
Fermentation Temperature	18C
Expected OG	1049
Expected FG	1011
Expected ABV	5%
IBU's Bitterness	38
Colour EBC	5.8
Pre Boil Gravity
Post Boil Gravity - Actual OG
Actual FG

 

Changes This Time

This time we have Lactol, which is 80% Lactic Acid.

Last time we had a mash pH of 5.6 which is within the acceptable range of 5.2 to 5.7, but it could be better. It will have to move -0.1 to get within the narrower range of 5.3 to 5.5 and -0.2 to get to the target 5.4. Therefore we need to aim for a change of -0.2.

Last time we upped the level of calcium in the mash from 6g to 9g and also added an extra 6g to the boil bringing the total to 15g. We also added 6g of salt in order to balance out the chloride ratio, hoping the sodium didn't affect the taste too much.

So the change this time should be to add all 15g of calcium to the grist prior to mash in, test the pH 10 mins into and if we still require a lower pH, add some Lactol.

Gypsum 15g to grist : Same as Brew Day #3 except none in the boil
Epsom Salts 3g : Same as Brew Day #3
Table Salt 6g : Same as Brew Day #3
(Still need to buy canning salt)

We have not yet got the strike water correct. This the correct method:

Bring strike water to 72C
Add to mash-tun
Add grain
 
Previous attempts were wrong because either:

1. We added strike water at 72C then waited until the water went down to 68C before adding grain. Mash had to be topped up with water to keep the temperature above 65C

2. We added strike water so that the water in the mash-tun measured 72C before adding the grain. Once grain added, mash started at 68.4C, which is a little too high.

This time, add the strike water at 72C, take a measurement of the mash-tun water, add grist, then take another measurement. 72C takes into account both the mash-tun dimensions as well as the temperature of the grist.

All this theory is good but on the day the temperature of the grist needs to be determined. Use Brewers Friend strike water calculator.  

Process

Fill boiler and switch on
Wash mash-tun, paddle and large pan

Brought 28 liters up to 75C and added about 10 litres into mash tun to warm. 

Topped up boiler and brought to to 72C.

Dropped out most of water in mash tun.

Added 25 litres of 72C water to mash-tun. 

Waited until water came down to 68C. 

Added 5.1KG grist - salts added to full grain bill after weighing and mixed up.

Added further 8 litres of water at 72C to bring the total volume of water to 32litres.

Sealed mash tun as best we could leaving digital thermometer in place.

After 90 mins performed vorlauf using a steel pan

Drained about 20 litres of wort from mash tun into boiler and lifted it up to its position.

Switched on boiler. 

Used the steel pan to continue to retrieve wort from grain bed and add to boiler.

Took sample for hydrometer reading.

Boiled for 90 mins adding hops in bags at appropriate times.

Boil complete, added post boil hops and switched off boiler for 30 mins.

While post boil hops in progress, cleaned and sanitized plate chiller, pump, fermenter, airlock, silicone pipes and setup chiller.

Sanitized lid.

Started running wort through chiller cycling back into boiler. 

When wort reached 17C, ran off wort into fermenter.

Pitched yeast which had been hydrates for 20 mins in boiled water saved from first water batch.